Pocket Symphony

Top/ Broken Boy Soldiers (Third Man/V2, 2006) is The Raconteurs' first full-length and contains the lead single "Steady, As She Goes". The Raconteurs (also known as The Saboteurs in Australia), are a rock group, featuring four members previously known for other musical projects, including Jack White of The White Stripes. The band is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Bottom/ Nixon (Merge) is a 2000 album by Lambchop. A band from Nashville, Tennessee, Lambchop is loosely associated with the alternative country genre, though its music resists easy classification. Allmusic refers to them as "arguably the most consistently brilliant and unique American group to emerge during the 1990s". Never a band with a "core" lineup, Lambchop through the years has consisted of a large and fluid collective of musicians focused around its creative centre, frontman Kurt Wagner. Initially indebted to traditional country, the music has subsequently moved through a range of influences including post-rock, soul and lounge music. Whatever the style, the characteristic mood of Lambchop's music is evoked by Wagner's distinctive songwriting - lyrically subtle and ambiguous, the vocals melodic but understated.

Orchestra Of Bubbles

Bottom/ Apparat is a German electronic musician (Sascha Ring) living in Berlin and one of the owners of Shitkatapult Records. Starting out with dance floor-oriented techno, he later started to create ambient music. Recent music is closer to glitch or IDM, accompanied with classical string instruments and other sounds. He collaborated with experimental techno artist Ellen Allien in 2003 on the album Berlinette, and again in 2006 on the album Orchestra of Bubbles.2007 saw the release of his own Walls (Shitkatapult). In March 2009 he released an album with Modeselektor under the name Moderat. Middle/ An unfinished version of the album Orchestra Of Bubbles (BPitch, 2006) by Ellen Allien and Apparat, was leaked on the net months prior its release. Ellen Allien, born Ellen Fraatz, is a German electronic musician, music producer and founder of BPitch Control music label. She lives in Berlin, Germany. She sings in both German and English. She has said that one of the main inspirations for her music is the culture of reunified Berlin; her album Stadtkind was dedicated to the city. Allien's music tends to be difficult to classify stylistically and is best described as a distinctive blend of techno and electromusic, which is dance-floor oriented, yet at the same time has noticeable experimental elements. Top/ Chromophobia (Kompakt, 2007) by Brazilian DJ and electronic music producer Gui Boratto (born 1974 in São Paulo) was awarded the title of Mixmag Album of the Month. Boratto's sophomore full-length, Take My Breath Away, was released in March 2009 on Cologne-based electronic music record label Kompakt Records. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for their Total compilation series. According to Grooves magazine, "Kompakt’s chief aesthetic objective has always been the perfect marriage of ambient texture and linear 4x4 structure—blending deep, granular sound design with the 4-bar rhythmic intensity and patterning that makes house and techno so club-effective".

Prophecies and Reversed Memories

Originally released in a die-cut gatefold sleeve with a two tone coloured inner sleeve, Dazzle Ships is the fourth album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1983 on Virgin Records. The title and cover art (designed by Peter Saville) alluded to a painting by vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth based on dazzle camouflage. The album was the follow-up release to the band's hugely successful Architecture and Morality. In contrast with its celebrated predecessor, Dazzle Ships met with a degree of critical and commercial hostility, due to the inaccessible nature of half of the material it contained, particularly musique concrete sound collages, utilising shortwave radio recordings to explore cold war and eastern bloc themes. The "Radio Prague" track is the actual interval signal of the Czechoslovak Radio foreign service, including the time signal and station ID spoken in Czech. "Time Zones" is a montage of various speaking clocks from around the world. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (most often abbreviated to OMD or O.M.D.) are a synth-pop group whose founding members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD were originally assimilated in the greater new wave (2008-03-03) batch of synthesizer-based acts of the later 1970s-early 1980s. On 3 March 2008 a remastered compact disc with bonus tracks was released, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the album. The critical hostility towards the album had cooled and the reissue of Dazzle Ships received positive reviews from Pitchfork Media and Popmatters, among others.

Schizophonia

Bottom/ Richard D. James Album (Warp Records, 1996) is an album by Richard D. James under his pseudonym Aphex Twin and is an archetype in the drill 'n bass genre. On "Logan Rock Witch", James sampled children's toys as percussion instruments. Some of the tracks, including the single "Girl/Boy Song", play plucked and bowed string sounds. Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), better known as Aphex Twin, is an electronic music artist who has been described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music". Mr. James has also been quoted as saying, "I never listen to the same record twice, there's no point". Richard's own Rephlex Records label coined the term "Braindance" in 1991 to describe Aphex Twin's otherwise uncategorisable music. "Braindance" applies to "forward-thinking" electronic music that can appeal to the mind as well as the desire to dance and party. Middle/ Velocifero (Nettwerk, 2008), literally meaning "bringer of speed", is the fourth studio album from British electropop band Ladytron. "Black Cat" and "Kletva" are both sung entirely in Bulgarian. Ladytron are an electronic pop band originally based in Liverpool, England, although members originate from Sofia and Glasgow as well as Liverpool itself. Ladytron have a cult audience worldwide. Across Europe, they opened for Nine Inch Nails in early 2007 at the invitation of Trent Reznor. Top/ The Knife is an electronic musical duo from Sweden formed in 1999. The band consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson (a.k.a. Fever Ray) and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by José González, appeared in a commercial by Sony. One of the group's distinguishing characteristics is their unwillingness to cooperate with the media or the mainstream music scene. The group rarely makes public appearances, most of their promotional photos feature the members wearing masks, usually venetian masks and until recently, they outright refused to perform live concerts. The group has shown themselves in public wearing masks formed as birds' beaks, similar to the traditional Venetian Medico Della Peste (plague doctor) masks worn during Carnival. Silent Shout was named the best album of 2006 by Pitchfork Media. On August 4, 2009, the band announced that, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, they would be writing an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titled Tomorrow, In A Year, is based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In January 2010, the band announced that they would release a studio version on March 1.

Satin Chic

Bottom/ Supernature (Mute, 2005) is the third album by British electronic duo Goldfrapp. The album represented a change in Goldfrapp's musical style, and featured pop and electronic-dance music; inspirations were disco music artist Donna Summer and New Wave band New Order. Goldfrapp is a British electronic music group known for their visual theatrics and contribution to the popularization of electronic dance music. The band's sound has progressed from an ambient sound in Felt Mountain (2000), through electronic music in Black Cherry to a more glam rock sound in Supernature, and most recently to a blend of ambient, folk, and electronic in Seventh Tree (2008). Will Gregory's musical background was classical music and has cited Ennio Morricone as his main influence. In 2003, Alison Goldfrapp modified her image, from a sophisticated Marlene Dietrich inspired look to that of a New Wave diva. The reinvented image included false eyelashes, customized T-shirts, military uniforms and fishnet stockings. Sections of the 2004 Wonderful Electric Tour stage show featured Goldfrapp in a white dress wearing a horse tail and dancers with deer heads, and were inspired by Goldfrapp's interest in animals and mythology. Top/ "Strict Machine" is an electronic dance song written by Goldfrapp and Nick Batt for their second studio album Black Cherry (Mute, 2003). The single describes laboratory rats in neuroscience experiments. Alison Goldfrapp read in a newspaper about experiments in which scientists stimulated rats' brains so that the rats would feel joy when following commands. She was inspired to write "Strict Machine" based on images of the experiment and "more human aspects of machines and sex and control."

You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio

Bottom/ Crazy Itch Radio (Astralwerks, 2006) by UK electronic dance duo Basement Jaxx features guest vocals by Lily Allen Middle/ Wild Planet (Island) is the second studio album by the The B-52's, released in 1980. The album has a slightly more psychedelic and even paranoid sound than that of their debut. The B-52's' sound is marked by the vocals and feminine harmonies of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, and the generally spoken-word male vocal counterpoint or sprechgesang of Fred Schneider. Presenting as a positive, enthusiastic, slightly wacky party band, the B-52's have focused on songs telling tall tales ("Rock Lobster", "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland"), glorifying wild youth ("Love Shack", "Deadbeat Club"), or celebrating wild romance ("Strobe Light", "Hot Pants Explosion"), all set to a danceable New Wave beat. Top/ Guitarist Poison Ivy of The Cramps purrs on the cover of "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?" from the psychobilly group's album A Date With Elvis (Big Beat Records, 1986). A punk rock band originally formed in 1976, The Cramps were part of the early CBGB's punk rock movement that had emerged in New York, along with other emerging acts like the Ramones, Patti Smith, and Television.